Noise and Vibro Acoustics Module

Rationale

This module is part of a series of modules defining competencies that an engineering analyst or simulation engineer would be expected to possess in order to carry out safe and effective analyses in the various module areas. In this regard the modules may be considered to be defining standards of competency in this area. The competencies and modules as they stand would define necessary requirements, but not sufficient requirements, for safe and effective analysis and simulation. In particular, industry specific competencies and non-technical competencies have not yet been included, as discussed below.

In general most modules will have specified pre-requisites and any pre-requisite modules should be examined for relevant competencies. It should also be recognised that most engineering analyses and simulations will involve competencies from quite a few modules.

Not all modules will be relevant to all analysts (e.g. buckling may not be an issue for the components being designed and manufactured by a particular company) and not all competencies in modules will be relevant to all analysts and organisations (e.g. welding may not be a process used and hence competencies relating to fatigue of welds may not be relevant).

As well as defining a general standard level of competence, the statements with their links to specific references, should also provide a good basis for informal learning in a work-based environment (a refresher for some and a basis for a move into new areas, preferably under the guidance of a mentor, for others). That is not to say that the competencies could not also be used for the development of short courses, text books or other learning material. For such structured purposes, the competencies would no doubt benefit from a re-sequencing in some areas. The competencies could also be used as the basis for interview questions and the production of self-test quizzes and even formal examinations. In this case each competency would benefit from the development of associated threshold statements, defining a base level of achievement as well as a comprehensive level.

This module aims to provide a non-industry-specific coverage of modelling of noise/acoustics and vibro-acoustics, primarily using finite element and boundary element approaches.

Please note the following:

1. It is recognized that effective analysis will require a much broader range of competences than is presented in this module. Many of these will be covered in other modules within the Competence Framework. However, it may be noted that non-technical competences relating to project management, finance, ethics, interpersonal skills, human resource management etc are not included at this time. New modules in these and other areas may be added to the competence framework in the future.

2. All competence statements and references can be modified, deleted or replaced as necessary. New modules can also be added. In this way, the competence framework can be tailored to particular sector or company needs.

3. While the module extends significantly beyond an introduction to the subject, it does not address research topics, areas not in general use across industry sectors or techniques specific to a sector.

4. The areas of application of acoustics calculation methods and hence modelling methods are very varied and cover many industry sectors. The primary focus in this module is on modelling methods that relate to the design of products or systems; modelling methods applicable to environmental noise and approaches based around ‘rules’ (statutory codes and similar) or empirical approaches are only referenced incidentally.

5. Acoustics is fundamentally a phenomenon of waves in a medium: the ultimate source of such waves is a moving boundary; therefore, the interaction of the medium with an adjoint structure is implicitly part of the total system. However, in this module, the focus is on modelling the acoustic phenomena and the modelling of the coupling with a structure if required: the modelling of any structure itself is covered in other modules in the series and is not included here.

6. The module covers both ‘pure’ acoustics (in which the interaction with any adjoint structures is handled separately as a one-way procedure of defining boundary conditions for the acoustic model) and ‘vibro-acoustics’ (in which the interaction with adjoint structures is handled as a two-way process which requires that it be solved together).

7. Detailed, advanced and specialised methods for modelling the internal behaviours of different type of sound-absorbing materials are not covered, although they are introduced or referenced.